Berrymans return to Library Coffeehouse

Feb 21, 2014

Lou and Peter Berryman will bring their distinctively daft folk music to Camden Public Library Thursday night, March 6.

Camden — Lou and Peter Berryman, who sing some of the wittiest songs in the world, have been performing together for 40 years and will be returning the Midcoast to perform at the Camden Public Library Coffeehouse Thursday, March 6, at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $8.

The Berrymans are authors of 16 recordings and three songbooks; and their whimsical and wonderfully accessible performances of their hilarious, quirky, yet oddly profound songs leave audiences with cheeks aching from smiling. The popularity of Lou and Peter Berryman — whose friendship survived a brief marriage in the 1970s — is a testament to their intelligent and wickedly funny material, which is never bawdy or risqué but is rich with wordplay and witty images.

Mostly, guitarist Peter writes the lyrics and accordionist Lou writes the music, but all their songs are collaborations. They specialize in songs that make humorous observations in such songs as “Why Am I Painting the Living Room,” “The Speculator,” “The Dupsha Dove,” “Acme Forgetting Service,” “Dem Deer” and “Does Your Dog Agonize?” Frequent comparisons to Tom Lehrer, Flanders and Swann and Gilbert and Sullivan notwithstanding, these two performers are originals, blending Midwestern culture with intelligent observation in an eccentric and funny performance.

Lou and Peter Berryman began their musical partnership in high school in Appleton, Wis. By the late ‘70s, they had established themselves as a prominent feature of the songwriting subculture of Wisconsin’s capital, playing their original material every week for almost 10 years in the run-down but trendy music room of Madison’s Club de Wash. Gradually expanding their circuit, they began crisscrossing the continent and gaining national attention with appearances on such programs as public radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion” and NPR’s “Weekend Edition.”

Regular appearances at festivals and folk music clubs all across the country now serve as venues for their songs, which have been performed by everyone from Garrison Keillor to Peggy Seeger. This duo is not to be missed.